AMBROSE AKWAMBI AND LOON COLLABO - ,MANDUGU DIGITAL

Tanzania: Some ‘Bongo Flava’ In Ya Ear

I can relate to Dave Chappelle. I went to Africa in May 2007 to get away from the drama that is the everyday grind in Los Angeles. One day I simply had enough, decided to book a roundtrip ticket to Dar es Salaam (fittingly, “House of Peace” in Arabic), Tanzania, and off I went to visit my extended family. I spent that June soaking up all that Tanzania had to offer: endless Safari and Kilimanjaro beers, Konyagi clear liquor, bars and clubs that start poppin’ at 5 a.m. and end whenever the last patron stumbles out into the sunrise.

Good times. And of course, there was the music. As I quickly discovered from watching TV, there was an abundance of music – both U.S. and local, as well as from neighboring countries Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Malawi. And that’s not counting cable channels. There’s also a variety of music on the FM radio and coverage in Bang! Magazine, which circulates in the countries I just mentioned, that’s covering the scene in the same way that VIBE does with urban music and culture here in the States.

While Rihanna’s “Umbrella” featuring Jay-Z was getting heavy play, so was “Crazy Over You,” a song by Tanzanian’s own version of Rihanna, K-Lynn. The song’s melody and groove moved you instantly:


Although hip-hop in Tanzania has matured in the sense that many rap acts have discovered their own sound, most of them still heavily lean on the music exported from the U.S., says Ambrose Akwabi, one of the leading beatmakers in the East African nation, affectionately called “bongoland” (”bongo” means “brain” in Kiswahili; apparently the locals have to be sharp and focused to get by).

When a rare opportunity to collaborate with an American rapper presented itself, Akwabi – who produces for his own Mandugu Digital Productions – seized the moment. Although the American rapper was ex-Bad Boy signee Loon, the resulting track, featuring local heroes Nako 2 Nako Soldiers, doesn’t sound half-bad. In fact, it got me wondering about the possibilities of blending braggadocio lyrics in English and Kiswahili over the uniquely Tanzanian “bongo flava” sound.
Tanzanian producer Ambrose Akwabi

Tanzanian producer Ambrose Akwabi

mp3: “Bongo Groove” featuring Loon & Nako 2 Nako

Here’s how Akwabi describes working with Loon:

“My meeting with Loon was by accident. He was coming from Dubai and Zanzibar, where he was shooting a video for one of his songs, and decided to touch down in Dar es Salaam. Someone spotted him and passed word around the media houses that the guy was around. So Miss T (then at Clouds FM, a popular radio station) jumped at the opportunity and found her way to Loon’s entourage.

I was chillin’ with Ibra Da Hustla from Nako 2 Nako when Miss T called him to say that Nako 2 Nako were needed at Sea Cliff Hotel to meet an important person. One of the members of Nako 2 Nako (Lord Izz, pronounced “Lord Eyes”), had gone to Arusha (in northern Tanzania) for a funeral. Ibra asked me to accompany him to Sea Cliff and I agreed.

We met Miss T, who then introduced us to Loon and another rapper named D’Gritty. After a freestyle at the hotel room, Loon suggested that we hit the studio. His host happened to be the owner of Aegis Records, and so he offered to have the recording done at his studio. Miss T was already pushing for me to do the production, and the rest is history!”

Akwabi on his start in the industry:

“My role has been a big one in the sense that when I arrived here from Nairobi, the music scene in Dar es Salaam was kind of basic in terms of production quality. After producing Solo Thang’s debut single “Hili Balaa,” then Black Rhino’s “Usipime,” Nako 2 Nako’s “Bang!”, Jo Makini’s “Chochote Popote” and Professor Jay’s “Hapo Sawak” many production houses started copying the ‘new’ sound that I had introduced to the game and you can hear it today in many up-and-coming young producers’ works.

Still, Tanzania’s hip-hop acts don’t get a good share of the consumer market. Many rush to studios just to keep their portfolios going without registering their songs with a royalty collection body like CO SO TA (Copyright Society Of Tanzania), because they have cited misappropriation of their royalties. This is also because there is no system to measure the number of times an artist’s song has been aired and so the radio stations just pay an unknown figure to the copyright society, money which doesn’t get to the artist. Most hip hop artists settle for less, which is chasing after radio and video stations to make them relevant by being on the charts with the hope that they might break through.

Distribution companies here pay artists an advance fee that ranges from $500 to $3,000 for an album, depending on the popularity of certain songs on the local radio and club DJ rotations. Also, many radio presenters and radio station owners have artists that they have signed so they prioritize them even though there are better artists that are worth listening to.”

And now a T3 (Top Three Tanzania) list to close things out:

Top 3 Tanzanian solo rappers: Jo Makini, Proffessor Jay, and Chidi Benz

Top 3 Tanzanian groups: Kikosi cha Mizinga, Nako 2 Nako Soldiers, and Watengwa Family from Arusha.

Top 3 Tanzanian producers: Lamar (Fishcrab Studios), Hermy B, P-Funk (Bongo Records), and Mandugu Digital Productions

One more tune, courtesy of Akwabi’s MySpace:

mp3: “Compe Bamboo”